And prowl'd by beasts of prey.
One path alone conducts aright,
One narrow path, with little light;
A thousand lead astray.

3. Life is a warfare,-and alike
Prepared to parley, or to strike,
The practiced foe draws nigh.
Oh, hold no truce! less dangerous far
To stand, and all his phalanx dare,
Than trust his spēcious lie.

4. Whate'er its form', whate'er its flow',
While life is lent to man below',
One duty stands confess'd',-
To watch incessant, firm of mind,
And watch where'er the post assign'd,
And leave to God the rest.

LESSON XLVIII.

SOWING AND HARVESTING.

[Mankind described under the metaphor of Husbandmen.]

1. THERE is nothing more true than that "whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap;" and we have abundant proof, in the every-day experience of life, that "he that soweth iniquity shall reap iniquity;" that "they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, shall reap the same;" and that those who have "sown the wind shall reap the whirlwind." And then, again, we have the comforting assurance, that if we "be not weary in well-doing, in due season we shall reap, if we faint not;" and that "to him that soweth righteousness shall be a sure reward." These are metaphors in which all men are described as husbandmen, sowing the seeds for the harvest, and reaping the fruits thereof.

2. They are sowing their seed in the daylight fair,

They are sowing their seed in the noonday glare,

They are sowing their seed in the soft twilight,
They are sowing their seed in the solemn nightTM;
What shall their harvest be?

3. Some are sowing their seed of pleasant thought;
In the spring's green light they have blithely wrought;
They have brought their fancies from wood and dell,
Where the mosses creep, and the flower-buds swell;
Rare shall the harvest be!

4. Some are sowing the seeds of word and deed,
Which the cold know not, nor the careless heed,—
Of the gentle word and the kindest deed
That have blessed the heart in its sorest need:
Sweet shall the harvest be!

5. And some are sowing the seeds of pain,
Of late remorse, and in maddened brain;
And the stars shall fall, and the sun shall wane,
Ere they root the weeds from the soil again:
Dark will the harvest be!

6. And some are standing with idle hand,
Yet they scatter seeds on their native land;
And some are sowing the seeds of care,
Which their soil has borne, and still must bear:
Sad will the harvest be!

7. And each, in his way, is sowing the seed
Of good or of evil, in word or deed:

With a careless hand o'er the earth they sow,
And the fields are ripening wherê'er they go:
What shall the harvest be?

8. Sown in darkness', or sown in light',
Sown in weakness', or sown in might',
Sown in meekness', or sown in wrath',
In the broad work-field', or the shadowy path-
SURE will the harvest be!

[Analysis.-1. What is Antithesis? Illustrations.-2. Simplest forms of this fig ure. Examples.-3. Good example from the Apostle Paul.-4. When antitheses are the most striking and pleasing. Examples.-5. Brute animals compared with man. -6. Extent to which the principle of antithesis may be carried.-7, Maxims, proverbs, and moral sayings. Antithetic chapters in Proverbs. The epigram.-8. When antithesis becomes tiresome. Metaphorical illustration of antithesis.-9. The reading of antithetic clauses.]

1. ANTITHESIS is a figure of speech by which two or more objects, words, or sentiments are compared by being brought into contrast. We oppose white to black', virtue' to vice', courage to cowardice', health to sickness', wealth to poverty', wisdom to folly', happiness to misery; and each appears the more marked by the opposition in which we place it.

2. In the simplest forms of antithesis, single words, or ob jects, are brought into contrast, as in the following exam ples:

"Yet, at thy call, the hardy tar pursued,

13 Pale, but intrepid'; sad, but unsubdued'." "In reading, be careful to distinguish between a thought and a feeling-an idea and a sentiment."

3. The Apostle Paul, speaking in the plural number, declares to the Corinthians that he had approved himself a faithful minister by a patient endurance of all the trials that he had passed through,-"by honor and dishonor', by evil report and good' report; as deceivers, and yet true'; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold we live'; as chastened, and not killed'; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing'; as poor, yet making many rich'; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things"."

4. Antitheses are the most striking and pleasing when

the sentences expressing the contrasts are similarly constructed, and made to correspond to each other. Thus: "Cæsar died a violent death', but his empire remained': Cromwell died a natural death', but his empire vanished'." "Melissa, like the bee', gathers honey' from every weed'; while Arachne, like the spider', sucks poison' from the fairest flowers."

5. In the following, brute animals are compared, by antithesis, with man, and mortality with immortality.

"The lamb gambols alike through the green pastures', or to the place of slaughter'. Up to the last flutter of her wings', the bird ceases not to trill her matins upon the air'. But the only immortal being upon the earth lives in dread of death. The only being to whom death is an impossibility', fears every day that it will come."

6. While the simplest form of antithesis is that which exists between opposing words, yet this figure is easily extended, not only to opposing clauses, but also to opposing sentences, as in some of the examples already given. Yet the principle of antithesis does not end here; for it extends to all contrasted thoughts that are presented under one view, however far apart they may stand in the order of their arrangement.

7. Maxims, proverbs, and moral sayings that are specially designed for the announcement of striking truths, very properly take the antithetical form, because they thus make the strongest impression upon the mind, and are the most easily remembered. The tenth chapter of the Proverbs of Solomon, and the four succeeding chapters, are a continued series of antithetical sentences. In the epigram, which is a brief expression of some startling thought, generally, and, most properly, in a poetic form, antithesis finds an appropriate place.

8. But this figure, so beautiful and forcible when properly and sparingly employed in contrasting thoughts rather than mere words, appears studied, and labored, and monotonously tiresome when carried to excess,-and when the impression is conveyed that an author attends more to the manner of saying things than to the things themselves. It has been

well remarked, in a truthful metaphor, that "antithesis may be the blossom of wit; but it will never arrive at maturity unless sound sense be the trunk, and truth the root."

9. In the reading of closely connected antithetic clauses, we naturally express the first clause of the contrast in a little higher tone of voice than we apply to the latter, with a prolonged pause between them; and, frequently, with the rhetorical pause after each of the two strongly contrasted words, as in the following example. "Homer was the greater genius',- Virgil the better artist." The same principle is carried out, more or less fully, in the more complex examples of continuous antithesis. (See Lesson LIII., "Tact and Talent."

LESSON L.

BRIEF EXAMPLES OF ANTITHESIS.

I. DESCRIPTION OF POMPEY.

HE waged more wars than others had read' of; conquered more provinces than others had governed': and he had been trained up, from his youth', to the art of war'; not by the precepts of others', but by his own commands'; not by miscarriages in the field', but by victories'; not by campaigns', but by triumphs'.-CICERO.

II. WORLDLY AND HEAVENLY WISDOM.

1. As there is a worldly happiness' which God perceives to be no more than disguised misery; as there are worldly honors' which in his estimation are reproach; so there is a worldly wisdom which in his sight is foolishness'.

2. Of this worldly wisdom', the characters are given in the Scriptures', and placed in contrast with those of the wisdom which is from above'. The one is the wisdom of the crafty; the other, that of the upright': the one terminates in selfishness; the other in charity': the one is full of strife and bitter envyings; the other, of mercy and of good fruits'.-DR. BLAIR.